Many Pieces
by Duzzie
Summary: Drabbles. They are going to lose the fight they're picking.
1. Luffy: nakama

**word count: 100**

**nakama treasure**

**…**

Luffy realizes something one night: he loves his nakama more than anything else in this world. They are his anchors, his ability for adventures, his reasons for the seas. They are more important than a promise and certainly more important than becoming Pirate King.

They are his everything.

He would go through hell and back to make their dreams come true.

There isn't a challenge out there formidable enough to deter him from taking it head on, if for their sake.

It is late one night on the animal figurine that Luffy realizes he has already found his One Piece.


	2. Nami: the hat

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**The Hat**

...

Nami wonders why she's the one that always ends up with Luffy's straw hat. She feels undeserving of his treasure. The privilege of wearing something so important to him feels ironically criminal.

She's so used to breaking things that she doesn't yet know how to mend them.

One night, she asks him why. He says, "Because you're my nakama, Nami." She feels cheated; she does not yet fully comprehend his love.

It's not until countless nights later that Nami finally understands why she's the one that always ends up with Luffy's hat.

...

_edited 4/16/10_


	3. Nami: orange

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**Orange Wings**

**...**

She fingers a lock of tangerine hair and sighs, the sound of the birds humming above her head. She realizes she has never stopped to listen to them before now.

"_Nami! You are my Nakama!"_

His words ring in her ears, clear like the reflection of the sun on the ocean. Another sigh escapes her frowning lips; a shadow blocks the sky.

"Nami?"

She looks up to a hand and a hardened face.

"Luffy?"

There is no hesitation in his voice. "How am I supposed to become Pirate King without a navigator?"

He smiled; her heart already knew why anyway.


	4. Chopper: hero

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**Dark Hero**

...

Chopper loves Luffy. He's warmth, strength, dreams, and courage. He's Chopper's brother, but sometimes, Chopper has his doubts.

When Luffy is fighting Chopper's sometimes _afraid_ of Luffy, because when Luffy's angry, he's remarkable.

When he snarls more ferociously than any human, much less animal should be capable of, it is then that Chopper fears.

But after fights, Luffy always, _always_ comes back to Chopper, goofy grin and all, and reassuringly pats him on the back.

And those are the times when Chopper forgets about scary Luffy, and loves all of him again, because Luffy, no matter what, is Chopper's world.


	5. The Optimistic Pessimist

**By Duzzie  
**  
**Word Count: 100  
**  
**The Optimistic Pessimist**

**...**

Tashigi has to beat Zoro to become the best, but she denies herself the truth. She wants Zoro to acknowledge her, but passes it off to be something that she just must do.

She ignores the fact that when letting the Straw Hat Pirates escape, her eyes lingered for a bit longer on the form of the swordsman, the curve of the heroic, enticing, enemy.

Tashigi may deny or ignore many things, but there is one thing in which she cannot deny, and that is the undeniable feelings she holds for Zoro, and the determination he holds for their dream.


	6. Luffy: overboard

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**Overboard**

**...**

He was washed overboard before there was any time to think. No time to talk or cry or scream. No time for anything, not even goodbye.

The water was dark and cold. Her embrace crushed into him with such force that all the air in his lungs was pushed out. She gave him no mercy, and once again he felt the awkward sting of betrayal.

A form suddenly descended upon him and grabbed hold of his vest. The winds hissed and stabbed at them, but they made it aboard the ship again, secure.

"You stupid idiot!" _I'm glad you're safe._


	7. Ace: anywhere

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**Anywhere Love**

...

He's okay because there's light after every storm, and he's all right because there are some things that make life sweeter.

He's content, only because he can be anywhere in the world and know that somewhere, maybe close, maybe even thousands of miles away, he has someone who is home to him. And that makes life all the more beautiful.

Clip…clop

_Clip…clop_

His boots make loud thuds against that ones ship. "Ace? Ace! What're you doing here? Oh, I get it you're looking for something again, right?" and suddenly the light's much brighter.

"Hey, little brother. Thought I'd stop by."


	8. Chopper: dreams

**By Duzzie  
**  
**Word Count: 100  
**  
**Whispering Dreams**

**...**

He smells of fresh mint in the morning and salt in the afternoon. In the evening, he smells of victories and dreams. Chopper notices this about Luffy right away.

When Luffy smiles it reaches from ear to ear. His smile is the truest that he's ever seen. It's Luffy's smile that gives Chopper the courage and strength to stand up for himself and his nakama.

One night, Chopper dreams of the father whom he killed. Chopper doesn't remember much about that night, but he does remember comforting arms, and soft soothings.

When he wakes, he is wearing a straw hat.


	9. Zoro: nothing

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**Explain Nothing**

**...**

Zoro doesn't cry.

He doesn't fear.

And he most certainly can't die.

But if that's so, then how is it possible for him to fear the loss of his nakama? How can you explain the tears that come from his eyes when dreams of Kuina haunt him?

How can you clarify the fact that he can see and breathe, but cannot feel his heart beating? His life and soul are all connected to it; he has nothing without his heart, and therefore he has nothing without his captain.

Nothing like the corpse he's holding in his arms. Nothing like death.


	10. Sogeking: fears

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**Fears from the Heart**

...

They're safely away from the Lobby, but their captain is missing. Sogeking remembers a conversation.

"_Luffy, how can you look death in the face and manage to laugh about it?" He only gives him a grin that is more half-hearted than usual._

"_I wish…I wish I could be as fearless as you are…" Luffy almost smiles._

"_I'm not fearless, Usopp," he barks out a laugh. "If I ever lost you guys again, if you died again, because of me…that's my greatest fear, I couldn't live if that happened again,"_

He remembers thinking that losing his captain was his greatest fear.


	11. Zoro: home

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**Home is Where the Heart is**

**...**

Zoro hasn't had a home since before he can remember. He thinks this, watching the Lobby's destruction; observing as it slowly drowns.

But now, as his eyes shut, home plays across closed lids. Home is with his nakama, and a boy who's light is more tangible than anything he's ever tasted. A boy that holds his dreams, and has made him a home.

Zoro uncharacteristically puts more faith into him than anything else, even as the boy still hasn't returned from the Lobby.

Because it's the first time he's had a home, and he'll face hell before he loses it.


	12. Sanji: nothing

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**When You Look at Nothing**

**...**

Sanji realizes, while they look beyond the blasting for their captain, that he has come up short again, and failed Luffy.

He was never quite as strong as Zoro, or as loyal as Usopp. Never as faithful as Nami, nor as brave as Chopper, and he hadn't made a sacrifice as significant as Robin had. Before, he could hear Luffy's laugh and be sure that his compassion and love for his nakama were more than enough to make up for this.

But now, for the first time, he looks at himself in the water and can't seem to find anything.


	13. Usopp: regrets

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**And Regrets Make Nightmares**

**...**

He screams as the hand slips from his grasp and the chance is lost.

_He does not know that in the days to come, he will dream of this moment every night; he will dream of his last touch to his captain's skin before everything is lost. Usopp doesn't know that once there is no Luffy, there are no dreams, and a dream is a life, and a life without a dream is absolutely nothing. _

Right now it's not important though, because Luffy's hand has just slipped and the Lobby is exploding around them and oh, god, where is Luffy?


	14. Vivi: the moon

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**And the Moon is Their Messenger**

**...**

Vivi was tired.

Tired of smiling and ruling and people. Her laughter was forced and her eyes clouded.

It's dark in the room that she's dedicated to them and the tea in her hands is too hot to drink. For a moment, she is caught up in dreams where she is with her nakama; free.

She's startled when Kohza comes in. He stares; she thinks in that look he can read her mind. Then he holds her and she remembers a promise in an X and is silently content again.

They sit there together as she softly sips her tea.


	15. Robin: sweeter

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**And Nothing Has Been Sweeter**

**...**

_And this is their victory._

This is her home, and her friends, and her family, and _her life _that she can live. This is their love, and their happiness.

Robin has never known what it was like to cry from happiness, but she thinks as the bombs are being fended off and her nakama are arguing and laughing and _living _for her… She thinks that this must be what it feels like, even if there aren't any visible tears.

_This is their victory._

This time around, nothing will ever separate her from this. Not anything.

She will protect this love.


	16. Koby: untold

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**A Future Untold**

**...**

Maybe Koby will hold this man, the King, in his arms as he takes his last bloody breath and maybe that man will look up at him with eyes as vast as the sea and just as much nothingness in them as it too. Maybe with long, long dry fingers, he'll clasp his shoulder and tell him the secret of all secrets and then one more. And then maybe he'll sob and cry and yell once he hears them and sees the limp body of a once upon a time savior friend idol brother everything.

And maybe Koby will regret.


	17. Nami: time

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**Still Time**

**...**

One day, Nami comes to the conclusion that dreams are made of regrets and regrets stem from life. This makes sense because Luffy is her life and he holds her dreams, so really, he's nothing more than one big life ending regret waiting to happen. It's too bad she's realized it too late because by the time Nami understands, it has been days and weeks into months and years and she is already in love with him.

This comprehension does not come with little turmoil, but then she sees him and thinks _maybe it's not worth it_, **but it's enough**.


	18. Nami: memory

**By Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**Now There Is A Memory **

_**...  
Dedication: **Necklace of Raindrops and thermopylae. Thank you._  
**...**

The sky is blue the world is black the earth is screaming and time has stopped while spinning 'round and 'round.

She breathes a little harder, a little faster, a little more and wills the paper in her hands to miraculously vanish.

It should not be his face or smile or name on this paper. He should not be in Logue Town tomorrow and should not die with a laugh on his lips so strong that it will shake an era; create another end.

And because it should not be, she picks up the phone and calls for the past.


	19. Twenty Two

**By Duzzie  
****Word Count: 100  
****Drifting**

_**...  
**A/N: Yes, I know I haven't updated this in quite a while, but I've got a legit reasoning! For such a long time now I've had THE worst case of writer's block…still do, really, but hopefully I'll slowly conquer it I was eaten by a band of raving, rabid iguanas……I know this is a crap chapter, but hopefully I'll get back into the game soon. _

_To MY READERS. Thank you so much for reading (some for following and waiting). To MY REVIEWERS. Always, always, thank YOU. It really helps to encourage when reviews are received to let me know people out there do actually pay attention to this sad collection of drabbles.  
**...**_

He wonders for a moment if in some distant reality, they're happy; wonders if the air tastes as fresh and if it smells as sweet; if the sea looks as blue and if the deck of a rocking boat feels as solid as the ground of an island.

He thinks, even if that were true, nothing could ever make life as worth it as it is when the smile of his captain reflects in the sky like a thousand suns and the promise that tomorrow brings their dreams that much closer.

Either way, he wouldn't trade this life for anything.


	20. Twenty Three

**Duzzie**

**Word Count: 100**

**Fusion**

...**  
Dedication:** Irenukia  
...

_When I dream it is of your eyes and your hair and your voice. Especially your voice._

...

In time, all things fade. Eventually you look up at the sky and find it's color is never as blue as it was and the air is never as fresh as it could have been somewhere else.

Memories are the same. You smell oranges at odd times in the day and sometimes stories float into your ears when there is no one around to tell them. You look at swords and feel lost and when you close your eyes you can almost feel his smile. Bright, unclouded, warm, warm, warm.

You feel his smile and want to cry.

Senses fade.


	21. Luffy: an end

**By Duzzie**

** Word Count: 100**

**An End **

...

It shouldn't've happened, but it does. He slips away while his crew lies bloody and unconscious.

"You won't lay a hand on them." says Luffy. It is not a question.

"…No, we won't." says Smoker. He means it.

Luffy takes his hat off, sets it next to Nami, and asks Tashigi to right a note. He puts it in Zoro's hands and for a brief moment the hand clamps onto his, its owner already knowing something is not right despite being asleep.

He doesn't look back, and by the time they wake up, it's already too late.

_"Don't give up."_


	22. Twenty Five

**Word Count: 100**

**A Thought**

**...**

'There is something intrinsically wrong-feeling about being separated from him. Like a sort of emptiness, or, like…a hollow ache throughout my body. It's stupid and makes me sort of angry because before I ever knew him I wasn't really aware of this aching, but now the very thought of being away from him, from all of my nakama makes me anxious. It's really pathetic, feeling this way and it's only been a few days but…now that I have these idiots I won't ever be able to ignore this feeling again. So yeah…I'm kind of angry…I guess.'


	23. Ace: throne

**Word Count: 100**

**His Throne**

**...**

Like his father before him, Ace sits atop the scaffold—a sardonic throne of failure—and for the first time in his life, he wishes to live.

'God I want to live,' he breathes.

'God I don't want Luffy to die,' he pleads.

He doesn't expect God to answer, doesn't even believe in him, but still, he _prays_. He's too weak to do anything else; watches as his comrades' fall. After a while, they stop getting back up. He memorizes their faces, knowing the next one might be his little brother.

He bites his cheek till it bleeds and waits.


	24. Twenty Seven

**Word Count: 100**

**Nightmares**

...

'Run, run, you're running, running out of time, searching. The sky is black and you _hurt_ all over and the waters are swaying in warning, you have to get out, get out, _run_. Metallic taste in your mouth, the intangible heaviness of a borrowed hat hanging from your neck, the _fear_ coursing through your veins. You are searching for something…someone, through the black smoke and falling rubble from the sky, the bursts of bombs ringing through your ears until, _there_, a body, red and blue and unmoving. Nonononono'

"_hhhhhh_!" Gasping awake, a nightmare. Just a nightmare.


	25. All: silences

**Word Count: 100**

**Of Silences**

...

There is a silence hanging in the air around them. They look at their captain—his eyes hooded—and wait, exhausted, trembling, but still.

And then, he jumps up with a thunderous rumble; a laugh bursting forth.

He says, "We did it!" and the faintness of loss echo around them, quietly while they weep at the sight of his deafening smile.

Many years later they gather around his grave--next to his brother's--and it's a silent day, but the sun is shining and his voice filters throughout their ears and they think, each one to themselves, 'We did it.'


	26. All: okay

**Word Count: 100**

**Okay**

..._  
dedication: __**yo wuz up**__. Thanks for the reviews. Sort of like the one before it…but what can I say, I'm in a specific sort of mood._  
...

He comes back to them alive, but a littler rougher around the edges; his smile darkened. He tells them, "I'm going to bring that bastard down," and they think, 'So we're going to war again.'

They know this time is more serious, more dangerous than any other time. They remember finding Luffy half dying (again) and wondering if 'this is it' for him (again) and they remember Ivankov explaining the events. They remember waiting—for weeks, this time—to see if Luffy would ever wake up.

He did, and he told them, "We're going to war." And they said, "Okay."


	27. Monday

**Word Count: 100**

**Monday**

**...**_  
dedication: SilverStream101, you're awesome._**  
...**

"**Hey, Luffy, remember when we were young?"**

So he dreams. Not of the vast blue skies yet to be seen, but of those that have long since faded into nights, the sun leaving behind the past.

The grass is soft under his feet, ticklish reminders of a home waiting to welcome him back to the warmth of childhood, but his fireplace is cold and he has no wood to burn.

And so he dreams of the cold. An empty world with familiarly foreign faces in a life past.

Even in his dreams, he has lost a brother.

The aching _grows_.


	28. Tuesday

**Word Count: 100**

**Tuesday**

...

He comes to, waking in and out as briefly as the waves.

Awake, asleep, the tides of the ocean rocking him in an unfamiliar wood. There, a crack of light, a peak of eye. Sore. A dull burning in his stomach, not hunger. Shouting. Silence. Darkness.

People by his bedside, but no antlers. Once he thinks he wakes crying, but it might've been a dream. What was he crying for again? Oh, oh, oh.

In, out, reality covering him, a blanket on his leaden heart. Straw clenched between fingers. There. Unclench. Breathe.

Back to the void. Momentarily escaping once again.


	29. Wednesday

**Word Count: 100**

**Wednesday**

..._  
dedication: to all of my reviewers, especially my regulars :3  
..._

He wouldn't eat. The day he woke up he trained until he couldn't stand anymore, and then he trained some more. Law watched him, keeping a careful eye on his current patient.

He watched him rage. Let him grieve. The sun rose and fell, and still, Luffy stayed on deck, stitches pulled and bloody arms sagging in exhaustion. Attentive, he chewed quietly before approaching, throwing a plate down at the immobile boy.

The food went untouched. He sat down. Minutes of a patient silence. Thoughtful.

"…I had a brother once, too," he said.

The next morning, the food was gone.


	30. Thursday

**Word Count: 100**

**Thursday**

**...**_  
an: omgomgomg the newest chapter. It was lovely._**  
...**

Once, he raised two boys and promised he'd do it right this time. Now, he digs two graves, filling one with memories and the other with the hope that he won't have to use it.

'War is ugly,' he remembers hearing his own father tell him, 'but necessary.'

'Yes,' he thinks, 'war is ugly.' But try as he might, he can't bring himself to rationalize its necessity.

Despite the bustling of the world around him, his ship is silent. The ocean, bare in her beauty, rocks his boat, stirs his memories.

Floating, floating, floating atop the dark mass of dreams.


	31. Friday

**Word Count: 100**

**Friday**

**...**_  
an: it was extremely hard to only write 100 words for this one. i almost gave into making it longer. thank you, self control._**  
...**

He collapsed the second day after waking. Law was expecting it. He carried him into a room and took the hat off his head. Briefly, fine straw scratched against his rough calluses.

He went on deck.

They had reached cool waters. When he breathed, silent clouds greeted him, rising into the starless sky.

'Impossible,' he had thought while operating. 'This amount of damage is humanly impossible,' he'd grunted, blood soaked into his shirt, his skin. Never before had he seen anything like it.

Near his hands the small heart of a boy had trembled. He'd thought, 'I _will_ save him.'


	32. Saturday

**Word Count: 100**

**Saturday**

_...  
an: well, apparently I'm more ditzy than I thought I was. sorry for the duplicate replies to the reviews! I need to keep on top of them more. here's to all that read. not an exciting one, but this week is winding down. thanks everyone!  
..._

Nighttime. Lounging, but alert, he hardly stirs for his approaching companion. He's hard to ignore, though, toiling energy boiling beneath the surface, black exhaustion underlining his eyes. He almost thinks he's looking into a mirror.

"We're heading to Amazon Lily. You can figure out what to do there."

He moves to lie down, covering his face with the back of his wrists.

"I'm so tired. I just want to sleep the world away," Luffy says.

They're not nakama, or friends, they're hardly anything, but he feels a kindred in this kid.

"You'll be okay," he says, and he means it.


	33. Sunday

**word count: 100**

**Sunday**

**...****  
**

_an: this last day of the week is dedicated to **yo wuz up** and **SilverStream101**. thanks for being the best reviewers in the history of reviewers :)_

**...**

When they depart, the oceans are rough. His ship is bustling with energy, the dark silence of the week slowly dissipating.

He hums with anticipation, the world is out there, waiting for him.

_"Law," he hears as he's boarding his ship. He turns around, unsure of what to expect. "Thanks," Luffy says, and they look at each other, a mutual understanding. He nods and watches the boy turn and walk away._

_His back is straight and wide and his eyes had been blazing._

Salty air whipping across his face, he welcomes the taste of a new age on his tongue.


	34. Thirty Seven

**Word Count: 100**

**The Life of a Firefly**

…

Quiet skies. A soft breeze. The underlying sweet-honey smell of an unknown flower wafting across your senses. Gentle sunlight bathing the ground.

Quiet granite before you, smooth, though rough around the edges, salty air taking its course.

You're quiet. A lifetime of regrets sitting still in your chest, comfortable at home where they belong.

You have seen the world, but it wasn't enough. Dreams are things of a distant era, and happiness, attainable only to an extent.

You've become used to being satisfied and not fulfilled.

If you were young…if you were young…

"I'm sorry I wasn't there with you."


	35. Brook: limelight

**word count: 100**

**in the limelight of yesterday**

**…**_  
an: a request for Brooks or Frankie was made. here's the first of (hopefully) more to come._**  
…**

He plays his violin at night, while the waters are black and the moon illuminates his decrepit ship. It makes enough shadows that he can almost pretend one of them is his own.

The strings sing deceivingly sweet melodies of loss, of longing.

He misses the feeling of the sun on his skin and the sound of laughter from his family, things that he will never have again.

He misses living.

Somewhere far away, he senses the warmth of happiness. It seeps through the cracks of unending darkness.

So he plays his violin at night, beckoning someone to find him.


	36. Luffy: aftertaste

**word count: 100**

**aftertaste**

**…  
**_an: thank you **SnowLion no Miko** for my 100th review! woot! and thanks to everyone else for making that possible!  
**...**_

"I'm…weak!"

he cries, and the sharp edges of a promise, a deteriorating dream, fall around him.

The dull burning of reality pushes him down, flaring from inside and consuming. He doesn't even know how to start putting the pieces back together. Doesn't even know if he wants to.

Where can he go, now that his beginning no longer exists?

Home, home! His heart cries, reaching out across vast oceans of separation and loneliness. Of great victories and even greater failures.

All that answers him is the bitter silence of the world and its indifference's.

Where do I go from now?


	37. Zoro: the calm

**word count: 100**

**the calm before the glory**

…

One by one, their reunions are loud and filled with tears, but Zoro's is quiet, the absence of outward emotion comparable only to the excess of his inner self-hatred for failing, once again, to keep his promise.

He speaks to Luffy in somber tones:

It never should have happened

I should have been there with you

I'm sorry

he whispers underneath the quiet layers of a joyous reunion.

Luffy replies:

For almost forgetting you; me, too.

He takes his rightful place next to a changed man and shivers, the essence of a king seeping into his blood.

The ocean calls.


	38. Forty

**word count: 100**

**lullaby and goodnight**

**…**_  
an: to all of my reviewers, and as always, thank you for reading._**  
…**

A distant memory of the beach, small, chubby fingers drawing indecipherable, fleeting pictures in the sand. You turn around slowly, greet motherly warmth as you're lifted in the air and a whole new world is seen through your eyes.

A boat, far off in the distance, sailing waves you've yet to experience. Dark clouds and swirling waters like the stories you're whispered to sleep, but you don't yet comprehend.

You don't understand what adventure is, why those arms keep you away from deep waters. You don't understand; with child-like certainty, you just _want_.

Someday, you'll have it.

Sshh, not yet.


	39. Forty One

**word count: 100**

**seashine and starglitter**

**…**_  
aka 'and I wanna eat my cake, too'  
an: onemanga is officially going to be deleting everything. it is a depressing day. this will probably cause me to write more, though._**  
…**

Now that your world revolves around him, you can't remember what it was like to be without an axis.

Chaotic, scary, hopeless, maybe.

Feelings that were once so familiar take the back burner in your heart. It's swelling with happiness, fit to burst. Sometimes you're afraid it will.

That the happiness will overflow, that you'll drown.

This life is too good. Too perfect. You are too happy, and experience has told you that the consequences can be worse than your happiness is worth.

But you've tried martyrdom; this time you're going to try selfishness.

You hope it does you well.


	40. Parallel: Nami

**word count: 100**

**parallel: nami**

**…**

She is sick of clouds and sunshine and old men. She wants to go back to her dark waters and dry maps. She wants her nakama.

She's scowling, picking up the only thing that's keeping her connected to her oceans.

She pauses, eyes widening. Something like fear creeps into her stomach, balling up into an anxious knot.

She reads on, hands crumpling it.

When she's done she bows her head into the paper, tears stinging her eyes.

She grabs the first old man that walks past her by the front of his garb, frantic. "I need to get home. Now."


	41. Parallel: Sanji

**word count: 100**

**parallel: sanji**

**…**

Thousands of miles away on the island of Momoiro, Emporio Ivankov staggers off of his ship, wounded allies trailing after him.

He waits behind a pink colored bush, a plan of escape already formulating in his mind. He _needs_ to get off this island.

He's about to sneak onboard when he hears Ivankov utter Luffy's name. He listens in on the conversation, every passing minute becoming more incredulous, more panicked.

He steps out from behind the bush, catching their eyes. He's wary, even wounded, Ivankov's aura is strong, but he doesn't back down.

"He's my captain. Explain everything to me."


	42. Forty Four

**word count: 300**

**the cat**

**…**_  
an: so, the first drabble over 100 words! I wasn't sure it was ever going to happen, but here it is! I know it's a break in the current arc, but it was just sort of an idea that popped into my mind and I didn't want to forget it. Hope you like it. Reviews are always appreciated._

_dedication: __**kallakkala**__, __**yo wuz up**__, and __**silverstream101**__, thank you for so consistently reviewing, it's so nice to see._**  
…**

One lazy afternoon the straw-hat pirates found themselves with nothing to do but to stretch out on deck, hoping to catch a spare breeze as the sun beat down and soft, rolling clouds passed overhead.

Usopp was working away from his lounging crewmates when Luffy crawled over to him, hovering from shoulder to shoulder. "Watcha making, Usopp?" he asked.

"Nothing." Usopp replied curtly.

"Aahhh?" Luffy tilted his head, trying to reach for it. Usopp moved it out of his reach, annoyed. The sun seemed to be getting brighter and hotter. It was miserable, and he wasn't in the mood to put up with Luffy's antics.

"Well, what's it do?" Luffy asked, taking it out of his hands, and Usopp snapped.

"Have you ever heard the expression, 'Curiosity killed the cat,' Luffy?" but immediately paled, knowing; he wasn't talking to a cat and it certainly wasn't curiosity Luffy had almost died from mere weeks ago. He felt so _stupid_ again, always taking things for granted, always acting like a fool.

But Luffy just scrunched up his face, an annoyed sulk, and plopped back down next to Zoro. "Yeah, well, 'Adventure brought him back,' didn't it? So who cares." he replied, and suddenly what little motion there had been on deck was gone. All attention was on Luffy, utter silence save for the gentle rocking of a calm, sun-warmed ocean.

Luffy had given them all the silent reassurance they hadn't asked for, but needed so desperately to hear anyway. He couldn't truthfully give it to them, but he gave it to them nevertheless.

Finally, Sanji broke the silence.

"It wasn't adventure, idiot. It was satisfaction." he said around a cigarette, snorting.

Luffy grinned up at the rolling clouds before tilting his hat over his face.

They sighed as a breeze came in.


	43. Parallel: Zoro

**word count: 100**

**parallel: zoro**

**...  
**_an: so, i got back from california yesterday to find that my computer wouldn't start! i was super worried that i would lose all my documents, including the pre-written chapters for Many Pieces. luckily, i remembered that i'd already uploaded the chapters to the document manager, AND took my computer in today and got it fixed, so everything is alllll right!_**  
**_  
__dedication: technology._**  
…**

He's uneasy, being so far away from his crew. Stranded on a desolate island inhabited only by rabid baboons and a useless girl.

He needs to get back to Luffy.

He's ready to attack another baboon when he senses a familiar presence. The baboons back off at the same time he turns around.

"Roronoa," Mihawk greets, eyebrow slightly raised in a show of surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I was sent here. I'm trying to get back to my nakama." he replies, tersely. Mihawk's face turns to steel, cold and unemotional.

"Come with me. I must tell you something."


	44. Parallel: Meeting

**word count: 100**

**parallel: meeting**

**…**

They arrive one by one at Sabaody Park. Raleigh and Shakky stand around them in the bar, silent pillars of support. The somberness is palpable, hanging around each crewmember with heavy care.

Being together feels almost wrong without Luffy.

Usopp breaks the silence, swiftly standing up and banging his hands down against a wooden table.

"Damnit! We don't have time to waste sitting around here! We have to find him!" he yells.

"B-but if what the newspaper says is true..then…" Chopper stammers out, tearfully.

"It's not. At least, not yet." Raleigh interrupts, bringing the attention towards him. "He's still alive."


	45. All: welcome back

**word count: 100**

**all: welcome back**

**…**

Two years isn't that long.

It's a hiccup.

A waning tide. A breeze. A night spent looking out at the infinite stars.

They reunite after two years, and two years isn't that long, but the distance between them has grown, and even though they try to fit back in like pieces of the same puzzle,

the puzzle is undeniably different, and they can deny it all they'd like, but the fact stares back at them with blinding white teeth, welcoming them home, inviting them into outstretched arms. A scarred chest.

Two years isn't that long, they'll find their way again.


	46. Luffy: close call

**word count: 100**

**Close Call**

…

In the beginning, there was darkness. Cold and infinite. An abyss of nothingness. Then, ah, the slightest tingle of fluttering eyelids. The softest touch of warmth against cheeks. The faintest whisper from a loved one.

Suddenly a hand insistently dragging him forward, upward, out of the abyss.

"Luffy? Luffy! Thank god you're awake! We thought…We really thought that…."

The warm feeling of tears as someone buries their face against his chest. The bright rays of sun in his eyes, the sound of the ocean. The hard wood against his back and looking up, his nakama enveloping him.

"I'm back."


	47. Zoro: foolish

**word count: 100**

**zoro: foolish**

…

They're fighting yet another group of arrogant pirates who are too stupid to realize that they are going to lose the fight they're picking.

"Roronoa Zoro! You're a strong swordsman! Why not leave your naïve boy of a captain and join the Grenville Pirates? Think of all that we could acom—" but he doesn't let him finish. There's no need to listen to the foolish words of a foolish man.

Luffy is his captain, and the world may think what it might of him, but until the day he dies there's no one else who he will serve under.


End file.
